Cultures of Resistance

The Art of Industry

There is something of a prison camp in this image which is truly disturbing. A commercial world of industry encapsulated in its own un-natural boundaries.

Industry at the Gates of Nature

There lies a boundary between our manipulation of the world and its natural order. No matter what fences or obstacles we propose, nature always overcomes.

Pyramid of Moss

No matter what, when or how we construct our world, nature will always decompose our works. Longevity and durability in our hands are figments of wild imagination.

Japanese Commuter Prison

Where the blind lead the blind the only resistance is to living in a cage.

The Battlefields of Nature

Beyond the wire of the vines a tree reaches for the sky.

Industrial Evolution

Once, state of the art industrial technology which fuelled the pride of a nation bloomed. Now decay relagates that same space to history as nature blooms in its place.

The Eyes of Industry

We are seen as creatures of our machines. Yet once used their future can only be dereliction as time resists their purpose.

Light in a Dark Place

To be watched in everything you do is to know you are not trusted. In a society where trust has broken down resistance itself cannot be trusted.

Sheffield Shocker

The wall is resisted by the poster, an art is resisted by a style, a statement is resisted by graphitti and the sunlight bleaches all. Resistance is a process understood in the context of time.

Pyramid of Rust

Such pink walls, so red a rust, in these green fields who is it we can trust. Only nature is reliable season after season as our world decays into reason.

Any idea of culture begins an argument about definition. Here in ‘Cultures of Resistance’ Takayama is looking at culture as ‘a response to environment’. Perhaps not a definition immediately recognisable but there is a school of thought which sees human culture, any culture, as a mediating activity between the holistic environment and the life form. For Takayama the idea of resistance to the dominant form is a powerful historical thought form which has shaped the story of our world. Yet it is not just an idea of humanity. As an activity, nature provides a constant culture of resistance to the works of human hands.

This ongoing conflict of spirit is what this series seeks to reflect with images in which a conflict between forms and structures appear. Resistance itself is a charged concept and too often we look to see aggression as its natural expression. However, as Takayama understands in ‘Cultures of Resistance’, aggression is a short term response which often fails its purpose. When the struggle against an opposing force is brought to bear slowly, over time, the consequences can change a balance of power. A genuine persistence in purpose and underlying determination of will can succeed against odds which seem overwhelmingly final.

In Cultures of Resistance, Takayama offers imagery which looks at the ability to resist the structures of our own realities.